David Brin answers 3 Future Salon Questions

We are at capacitiy for the Future Salon with David Brin this Wednesday 5th of February. If you have a ticket and can't come, please let us know right away. You will make some on our waitlist happy. Even better using your eventbright confirmation email you can release it yourself. If you don't have a ticket yet, but want to come, put yourself on the waitlist just below all the ticket types. Some may open up, see above or join our HangOut on Air remotely.

To get us all excited about the upcoming Future Salon we have a tradition to ask our destinguished guest 3 questions:

Q1: You wrote the book The Transparent Society at the end of the 90s. Did anything surprise you about where we are right now? The Snowden revelations?

David Brin: I never thought it would be so hard to get across a simple concept -- that it is more important to supervise and interrogate and scrutinize the mighty, than to futilely try to blind them. But yes, many things are unfolding as predicted. Last year, the wearable cameras began sprouting on lapels of police officers all over the place, and citizens won the all-important right to aim cameras back at authority. Of course the creepiest page of prediction was p206 of The Transparent Society. [He speculates the consequences of terrorist would succeed in toppeling both towers of the World Trade Center 3 years before it happened.]

David Brin: Not at all. The emphasis is on whining and bitching and moaning and yelling "Don't look at us!" A total distraction from the truly important issues at-hand

Q3: Popular science recently switched off comments at their publication. Has opinion won over scientific discourse?

David Brin: We need online reputation systems that automatically rise and fall the way regular reputations do, in real life. In that case, journals could have a threshholded system that still welcomes a morass of snarkers, down below, but allows wisdom to rise higher. A billion dollar business awaits those bold enough to create this. There are some methods....

I snuck in a 4th one Q4: Future Salon tagline is: Boldly creating a world that works for all. What are the most important things to tackle to create such a world?

David Brin: Seeking the win-win... the positive sum game. Ways to spread freedom AND safety, effectiveness and accountability. wealth-driven markets while remaining free from plutocracy. These are all possible! We are living proof.

P.S. Update: Our tests with G+ hangouts didn't provide the interactivity that we are looking for. Therefore please join the SAP/Adobe connect session: https://sap.na.pgiconnect.com/fs We will stream starting 6:30pm PST the latest. We will record and later share.